German from First PrinciplesPost 18 of 19 · 19 of 19 written
- Overview
- 01The model: how German is built
- 02Sounds and spelling
- 03Nouns: gender and plural
- 04Case: the core idea
- 05Articles and declension: one set of endings
- 06Prepositions: who decides the case
- 07Adjective endings: signal once
- 08Pronouns: the same signals, new stems
- 09Verbs: stems, prefixes and frames
- 10Word order: the sentence frame
- 11Tenses and how they are really used
- 12Mood: necessity, unreality, reported speech
- 13Passive and its alternatives
- 14Word formation: multiplying your vocabulary
- 15Connectors and particles: structure and tone
- 16Register: which German, where
- 17How acquisition works, and your path to C1
- 18Asking the right questions
- 19Quick-reference tables
18. Asking the right questions
Nearly every German error traces back to five questions. Ask them in this order about any sentence you read or write, and you will either find the answer yourself or know exactly what to look up.
The five diagnostic questions
- Verb: where is the conjugated verb, and what kind of clause is this (verb second, verb first, verb last)? Are all other verb parts in the right bracket?
- Frame: what does this verb require: which cases, which fixed preposition, sich or not, haben or sein?
- Case: for each noun, what is its gender and number, and what assigns its case: its role for the verb, a preposition, or the where / where-to rule?
- Signal: in each noun phrase, who carries the strong ending, the article or the adjective? Is there a weak masculine that needs -n?
- Register: spoken or written, du or Sie? Do the tense, mood and vocabulary fit?
Vague questions and precise questions
| Vague | Precise |
|---|---|
| Why is it dem here? | What assigns case to Mann here, the verb or the preposition, and why Dativ? |
| How do I say “I’m looking forward to it”? | What is the frame of sich freuen, and which preposition marks a future event? |
| Is this sentence correct? | Check the cases, adjective endings and verb position in this sentence, and name the rule behind each fix. |
| What does eben mean? | What attitude does eben add in Das ist eben so, and how does it differ from halt and ja? |
| Is it über or auf? | Which preposition does sich ärgern take, and is the case fixed? |
| Why does this sound wrong? | Is the problem the word order in the middle field, the register, or the collocation? |
Keep an error log
Record every corrected error in a simple sheet with four columns: the wrong sentence, the corrected sentence, the category (Kasus, Genus, Adjektivendung, Wortstellung, Verbform, Präposition, Wortwahl, Register) and the rule in one line. Once a week, count the categories. The biggest category is next week’s drill; the log shows you when an error has stopped appearing.
Reference tools
| Tool | Use it for |
|---|---|
| DWDS | The best free dictionary: meanings, gender, plural, real corpus examples, typical collocations, frequency, word history |
| Duden | Authoritative spelling, gender, plural and usage notes |
| Verbformen | Full conjugation and declension tables for any verb, noun or adjective |
| grammis (IDS Mannheim) | Scholarly but readable grammar reference from the Leibniz Institute for the German Language |
| DW Deutsch lernen | Free courses up to C1, slowly spoken news, graded audio |
| nachrichtenleicht | Weekly news in simple German from Deutschlandfunk, a bridge to full news |
| LanguageTool | Grammar and spelling checker for your writing |
| heise online | German tech news, useful for vocabulary in your own field (KI, Datenschutz, Software) |
For a printed grammar, Lehr- und Übungsbuch der deutschen Grammatik (Dreyer / Schmitt) is the standard B1–C1 workbook written in German, and Hammer’s German Grammar and Usage is the most thorough reference written in English.